Virus stoplight still a source of irritation between health minister and governors

-

July 30, 2020

coca-cola truck — If soft drinks can be delivered to towns across Mexico, why not medicines, the president wonders.

President López Obrador said Thursday that a state company will be created to distribute medications, medical supplies and vaccines across Mexico.

“Tomorrow we’ll speak more about a distributor of the Mexican state, a distributor of medicines, equipment and vaccines … to all the towns of Mexico just like [other] goods are distributed,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.

López Obrador said that federal Civil Protection Chief David León, “one of the government’s best public servants,” will be the director of the state-run distribution company.

“It’s unacceptable that bottled soft drinks and chips are distributed in the entire national territory but medicines don’t reach the towns,” he said.

The new distributor, the president added, will have enough resources to ensure that medicines and medical supplies get to the most far-flung and isolated parts of the country.

“It will have its budget, it will be a well-set-up company so that there’s no lack of medicine even in the most remote town in the sierra,” López Obrador said.

“Free medicine and medical care have to reach the most distant areas. We have about 50 billion pesos [US $2.3 billion] available for public health this year and next; guaranteeing people’s health is a priority.”

The president said the company will have its own trucks and that his wish is to have them emblazoned with the words “medicine, vaccines and medical equipment.”

“We must all respect these trucks,” he added. “[They’ll be] like the Red Cross ambulances or hospital ambulances that mustn’t be stopped, that must be respected because they’ll have medicine to cure the people.”

López Obrador also said he was pleased that federal lawmakers had passed a law that allows the government to make direct purchases of medicines and medical supplies abroad.

“I’m delighted that the purchase of medicine and vaccines abroad was approved in the Congress. This means breaking the monopoly … of companies that had control in Mexico, that sold poor quality medicines at elevated prices and had frequent problems with shortages,” he said.

“Tomorrow we’re going to sign an agreement with the UN to purchase medicines, vaccines [and] equipment” of the highest quality at the best prices, López Obrador said.

As a result, it appears that state-owned trucks filled with foreign pharmaceuticals may soon be plying the dusty roads of the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua and pulling up in hard-to-reach, impoverished towns in states such as Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero.

The federal government first announced last year that it intended to take over responsibility for the distribution of medications.

The head of a logistics firm said at the time that he believed the government didn’t have the logistical know-how to ensure that medications reach their intended destinations in a timely fashion.

“Specialized personnel with knowledge of technological advances is required in order to establish highly efficient distribution chains,” José Ambe said.

He also said the government would end up paying more to distribute medications itself, asserting that “the private sector dedicated to the distribution of medicines absorbs all operational costs, including the modernization of infrastructure.”

Source: Reforma (sp)

AMLO defends journalist’s diplomatic appointment: ‘no cronyism’

By

-

July 30, 2020

Journalist Arvide asks a question during a presidential press conference.

President López Obrador has defended the appointment of a journalist to a diplomatic role in Turkey, asserting that it was not a result of cronyism.

María Isabel Arvide Limón, publisher of a military-focused blog, was named as Mexico’s new consul in Istanbul, Turkey, on Tuesday, triggering a barrage of criticism because she has no diplomatic experience. Some people claimed she was given the job because she is close to López Obrador.

But the president told reporters at his regular news conference on Thursday that wasn’t the case.

“She’s a journalist who has been exercising the noble trade of journalism for more than 40 years, she doesn’t have a bad record, [and] I didn’t find her in the list of those who received money in the previous government,” López Obrador said.

He added that Arvide was the first woman to win the National Journalism Prize and questioned why people were suddenly judging the appointment of a consul so harshly.

López Obrador noted that Eduardo Medina Mora served as Mexico’s ambassador to the United States before becoming a Supreme Court justice only to resign last year amid allegations of corruption.

“He was ambassador in Washington and he had to leave [the court] for improper conduct,” he said.

In appointing Arvide to the consul role, there was no cronyism, the president declared, explaining that he wants both career diplomats and people with other experience to represent Mexico abroad.

“A journalist was appointed to the Vatican as well,” López Obrador said, asserting that Arvide is prepared for the job and noting that “she’s written books.”

“Is she controversial? We’re all controversial. … She is prepared, she’s written a lot; there are consuls who haven’t written texts so she is prepared,” he said, adding that the journalist doesn’t write “in favor” of the government.

“I don’t establish relationships of complicity with anyone. … Now you’re all very sensitive, … and suffer from amnesia, … you don’t remember how things were,” López Obrador said, referring to corruption during past governments.

“So we appoint Isabel Arvide and it’s an enormous scandal.”

Source: Reforma (sp)

YouTube cooking star Doña Ángela hits 3 million subscribers

By

-

July 30, 2020

A grandmother who hosts a popular YouTube cooking channel has surpassed 3 million subscribers in less than a year and her modest cooking demonstrations have garnered nearly 174 million views.

Doña Ángela Garfias Vázquez, a 70-year-old native of Michoacán, launched her YouTube channel from a rustic kitchen in August 2019, cooking traditional Mexican recipes and winning instant appeal, attracting more than a million subscribers in the first two months.

De Mi Rancho a tu Cocina (From my farm to your kitchen), which offers cooking lessons using ingredients she gathers from around her farm, have appealed to people across the globe and her videos are now presented with English subtitles.

On Tuesday Doña Ángela, as she is best known, thanked her fans for their support. “My people, I woke up today with the great news that we are already more than 3 million on YouTube. I am very happy and grateful to all of you,” she wrote on Facebook, where she has nearly 3.5 million followers. “My family, my people, may God bless you, you have made me very happy because you are part of my new family. I love you very much.”

Last month, Forbes named her one of the 100 most powerful women in Mexico due to her global reach, alongside such luminaries as singer Natalia Lafourcade, actress Salma Hayek and Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.

Assisted by her daughter, Doña Ángela presents recipes that are humble and explore Mexico’s culinary offerings. Doña Ángela shows viewers how to make enchiladas, green mole, chiles rellenos (stuffed chiles), chicken soup and other classics of Mexican cuisine, all of which she cooks on a wood-fired stove.

She also gives gardening tips and uses traditional Mexican cookware, such as clay pots, pewter casserole dishes, the comal (clay griddle) and the molcajete, a volcanic stone mortar and pestle.

Fans were quick to congratulate the septuagenarian on her accomplishment with comments like “Through you, I keep remembering the tenderness of my grandmother who is no longer with me and “thank you for making us feel part of your family.”

Source: El Universal (sp), Sin Embargo (sp), Milenio (sp), Forbes (sp)

Mexico’s Covid case numbers could actually be 7 million: specialist

By

-

July 30, 2020

Mexico’s real coronavirus case tally could be more than 7 million, according to an infectious disease specialist, a figure more than 17 times higher than the current count of confirmed cases.

A total of 408,449 people have tested positive in Mexico as of Wednesday while there have been 45,361 confirmed Covid-19 deaths. Those figures yield a fatality rate of 11.1 per 100 cases, meaning that one in every nine people diagnosed with Covid-19 dies.

The global rate is 3.9 based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University that shows that more than 17.1 million people around the world have tested positive for Covid-19 and almost 670,000 people have died.

But Amesh A. Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, United States, told the news agency Bloomberg that a fair estimate of the real fatality rate would be 0.6 considering that many cases go undetected.

If that rate is applied to Mexico’s official Covid-19 death numbers, total case numbers here would total about 7.1 million.

Mexico’s testing rate is certainly low – only 7,286 tests per 1 million inhabitants had been performed by Wednesday, according to the statistics portal Statista – meaning that large numbers of cases, especially mild and asymptomatic ones, go undetected.

But the assumption that the fatality rate here is on par with the world as a whole is likely flawed.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, the government’s coronavirus point man, has said on innumerable occasions that Mexico’s death toll is as high as it is because of the high prevalence of health problems such as hypertension, diabetes and obesity, all of which can cause complications for coronavirus patients.

The government concedes that many cases go undetected but would likely argue that the real case numbers are not as high as Adalja suggests.

Early in the pandemic, the Health Ministry estimated that there were about eight undetected cases for every confirmed one. If the same estimation was applied now, total cases in Mexico would be about 3.7 million and the fatality rate would be 1.2 per 100 cases, double Adalja’s global estimate.

Given that Mexico does indeed have a very high prevalence of diseases such as diabetes, and that coronavirus patients with that condition are much more likely to die, a 1.2 fatality rate, and by extension a case tally of 3.7 million, seems more credible.

In any case, the case numbers are undoubtedly much higher than those reported, and according to Adalja, Mexico’s coronavirus outbreak “is out of control.”

“If you’re not testing, tracing, isolating, you’re going to have chains of transmission that land on vulnerable people and you’re going to have high hospitalizations and deaths,” he said.

While coronavirus cases are almost certainly being drastically undercounted, the same can be said about Covid-19 deaths.

An analysis presented by health authorities last weekend that looked at deaths in 20 states between March 15 and June 27 found that fatalities were 55% higher than in previous years.

Excess deaths in the 20 states totaled 71,315 but only 22,400 were classified as being caused by Covid-19.

Many of the other excess deaths can likely be attributed to people delaying treatment for a range of medical problems due to fear they could be exposed to coronavirus as well as overburdened hospitals but it is probable that more than just 22,400 were caused by Covid-19.

Another new study found that that deaths among Mexico City residents between April 19 and June 30 were 161% above their normal level, providing more evidence that Mexico has been grossly underestimating its Covid-19 death toll.

Source: Bloomberg (en)

Covid deaths saturate Tamaulipas hospital with victims’ bodies

By

-

July 30, 2020

Bodies are stored in an audiovisual room at a Tamaulipas hospital. — Bodies are stored in an audio-visual room at a Tamaulipas hospital.

A hospital in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, has begun storing the bodies of Covid-19 victims in an audio-visual room because its mortuary is full.

The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) said in a statement that it had approved the provisional use of the No. 6 Regional General Hospital’s audio-visual room as a morgue due to the high number of deaths caused by the infectious disease.

IMSS, which operates the hospital, said the room was adapted for that purpose and that it meets the conditions required for the storage of bodies.

It said that a high number of Covid-19 fatalities had occurred at the hospital as the coronavirus outbreak and death toll in southern Tamaulipas continue to grow.

IMSS said that funeral homes and crematoriums in and around Ciudad Madero are overwhelmed and cannot pick up additional bodies from the hospital as quickly as they usually would.

The institute added that the construction of a new mortuary on land adjacent to the hospital has been approved but it’s unclear when it will be completed.

Although an overwhelming number of bodies would suggest a high number of deaths, Ciudad Madero has recorded only 39 Covid-19 deaths, according to state government data, while fatalities in the neighboring municipalities of Tampico and Altamira total 83 and 33, respectively.

A refrigerated trailer with the capacity to store 100 bodies arrived at the Carlos Canseco General Hospital in Tampico last week, the newspaper Reforma reported.

Tamaulipas’ statewide Covid-19 death toll is 968 while just under 16,000 people have tested positive.

Ciudad Madero has recorded the fifth highest number of cases among the state’s 43 municipalities, with 1,496 as of Wednesday. Ranking first to fourth for cases numbers are Reynosa, Matamoros, Tampico and Nuevo Laredo.

Tamaulipas Health Minister Gloria Marina Gamboa said earlier this week that seven hospitals in Ciudad Victoria, Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, Tampico, Reynosa and Ciudad Mante are completely full due to a spike in admissions of coronavirus patients.

The national coronavirus tally rose to 408,449 on Wednesday with 5,752 new confirmed cases registered by the federal Health Ministry. Just over 7% of those cases – 29,631 – are active, official data shows, while there are 89,978 suspected cases.

The official Covid-19 death toll rose to 45,361 on Wednesday with 485 additional fatalities registered. Mexico is close to passing the United Kingdom for Covid-19 deaths to rank third in the world behind the United States and Brazil.

At the Health Ministry’s coronavirus press briefing on Wednesday night, Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía presented data that showed that Covid-19 death numbers began to decline in recent weeks.

He also showed that case numbers in Guanajuato stabilized between epidemiological weeks 28 and 29 – July 4 to 18 – after rising steadily during several previous weeks. Covid-19 deaths in the Bajío region state declined 37% between weeks 28 and 29.

Guanajuato has recorded 19,648 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, the fifth highest tally in the country, and 923 Covid-19 deaths.

In Michoacán, case numbers increased until week 25 – June 14 to 20 – before declining in week 26 and remaining relatively stable until week 28.

Health Minister Alcocer: when a vaccine is available, the government will purchase as much as necessary to inoculate the public.

Alomía said that estimated case numbers increased 16% between weeks 28 and 29, explaining that it remains to be seen whether the spike is the beginning of a “new outbreak” or just a “ripple in the plateau.”

He said that Covid-19 deaths have been on the wane in Michoacán since epidemiological week 24 – June 7 to 13 – and declined 52% between weeks 28 and 29.

The Pacific coast state has recorded 9,329 confirmed cases, the 16th highest tally among the 32 states, and 710 Covid-19 deaths, according to federal data.

Located northeast of Michoacán, Querétaro has had a “very controlled” epidemic, Alomía said, presenting data that showed that case numbers were extremely low until epidemiological week 18 – April 26 to May 2 – when they began to rise.

Weekly cases rose to just below 300 in mid-May and remained relatively stable until early July. Case numbers spiked in week 28 – July 4 to 11 – but declined 14% the following week, Alomía said.

The health official said that Covid-19 deaths in Querétaro have been declining since mid-June and fell 25% between weeks 28 and 29.

The Bajío region state has recorded 3,457 confirmed cases, the fourth lowest tally in Mexico after Colima, Zacatecas and Nayarit, and 463 Covid-19 deaths.

With total case numbers having increased from 90,664 at the end of May to more than 408,000 currently – a 350% hike – and the economy in tatters, Mexico, like countries around the world, is anxiously waiting for the development of a vaccine.

If and when one becomes available, the government is prepared to spend as much as it needs to inoculate the public, Health Minister Jorge Alcocer told reporters at Wednesday night’s coronavirus press briefing.

Flanked by Alomía and the government’s coronavirus czar, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, Alcocer said it was unclear how much Mexico will have to pay to buy vaccines but estimated that the cost could be US $20 each.

But the health minister, who has seldom appeared at the nightly Covid conferences, stressed that the cost is unimportant because the purchase of vaccines represents a much-needed “investment” in health.

“In the Mexican government we don’t speak about budget limits. … Everything necessary will be done to cover … the purchase of what is needed.”

Source: Reforma (sp), El Universal (sp)

Remote learning may be good long-term goal but at present it means exclusivity

By

Jack Gooderidge

-

July 30, 2020

empty classroom — Virus-free schools the only way to serve children that lack the resources for remote learning.

Back in the middle of March, somewhat optimistically, the Mexican government conceded to closing the nation’s schools for a month as a preventative measure against the spread of Covid-19.

From where we are now, looking back on a fairly chaotic summer, we can more accurately label this decree as somewhat naive, with many schools still shut or only just beginning to open once again.

The restlessness of the government throughout the pandemic to get schools back up and running has been tangible, and it really is no surprise given the stakes at hand. Reopening workplaces without reopening schools eliminates the possibility of childcare for working parents, thus undermining millions of families in their efforts to get back out and provide for themselves.

Despite the risks involved with reopening places of congregation too early, it has always seemed to the government as though rebooting the education system is their golden ticket out of the pandemic.

It isn’t much of a surprise then that a new strategy for getting schools back up to function has been doing the rounds over the last few days, a product of extensive frameworking from Mexico’s Public Education Ministry. This outline describes a return to academic activities based on a new “hybrid educational model that will involve both remote education and in-class education.”

The ministry went on to insist that the specifics of each case will be left up to local authorities and will be based upon each state’s specific needs, but the overall framework would still apply nationwide.

The hybrid system that is proposed, while seemingly a radical advancement in the way teaching will be conducted, has already been means-tested sporadically throughout the pandemic. Ever since schools closed down, a strong emphasis has been placed on remote learning and ever more elaborate ways to extend the tools of learning to students within their homes. In many states, public TV has been showing educational programs, teachers have been conducting lessons in online video chats, and inter-pupil communication has taken advantage of various social media apps to share notes, advice, and learning resources.

Unfortunately, the problem with using a predominantly technological framework as the future basis of education under Covid is its inherent exclusivity. Access to adequate learning resources becomes contingent on various factors that all, at their root, come down to economic security.

Strong internet access is essential for large bandwidth group sessions while oftentimes particular learning software is only supported by recent computer models. This specific tech can be costly and if they don’t break the bank, they often bend it to the point of acute anxiety.

While the government may claim that anyone’s television can link up to educational programming, it is no secret that this medium barely scratches the surface of a rich and well-rounded curriculum. These programs, which now run around the clock on public service channels, were initially created as part of the telesecundaria program which aimed to support a teacher-led educational system but have now become the exclusive teaching input for thousands of families; understandably, this isn’t a level of education that will be sustainable in the long run.

So what is the solution? While it is difficult to completely fulfill everybody’s educational needs in a time of crisis, efforts need to be made to construct a sustainable schooling system that can cater to the needs of society’s poorest. Implementing powerful internet and preparing for a technological future can be a long-term goal, but more importantly, when it does become safe to open fully, schools need to ensure that they stay virus-free. This is the only way to serve immediately the children that lack the resources for remote learning.

The Ministry of Public Education has implemented guidelines for schools as to how to maintain an environment free of contamination and virus-breeding, but these need to be codified and enforced throughout the states. Ideas to “maximize the use of open space” and “ensure widespread access to water and soap” are welcome, but feel characteristically lax and simply advisory.

Stricter rules may in fact be necessary, such as a measure to close a school for 15 days if even a single case of Covid is detected among staff or students. This is currently a recommended measure, but still one that seems capable of preserving schools and educational hubs as locations free of potential outbreaks.

As is so often the case, and especially in the context of this pandemic, some preventative measures are simply not going far enough. Though the government is making a valiant effort to supply the educational needs of the nation by using the inevitable technological future as a framework, it seems that the solution in many ways comes down to reinforcing the distancing measures in place and taking the threat seriously on the journey back to normality.

This is the only way of ensuring that the very poorest in our educational system can continue to learn in safety, just like everyone else.

Jack Gooderidge writes from Campeche.

2 days of protests in Chiapas over doctor arrested for death of Covid patient

By

-

July 30, 2020

Demonstrators held a second protest Wednesday.

More than 200 health care workers and residents of Acala, Chiapas, took to the streets for a second time Wednesday to demand the release of Dr. Gerardo Vicente Grajales Yuca, who was arrested last weekend for abuse of authority related to the death of a coronavirus patient.

Marchers gathered in front of city hall to demand his release, calling his arrest “unfair” and “arbitrary.”

Supporters of Grajales, head of emergency and critical medicine at a government-run hospital in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, say the imprisoned doctor had asked the family of Miguel Arturo Ramírez López, a former state politician, to purchase a medication that wasn’t readily available in the hospital, but the man died on July 7.

His daughter, Karen Alejandra Ramírez Molin, filed a complaint with police on July 17. Authorities took the cardiologist into custody on Sunday evening, announcing that his arrest occurred “within the framework” of the fight against corruption.

Antonio Juárez Navarro, the doctor’s lawyer, explained to local media that the Covid-19 patient did not have social security, so treatment could have been denied. However, Grajales agreed to treat him anyway but simply did not have access to the necessary medication.

During yesterday’s protest, which was live-streamed on social media, one resident stated, “Acala demands justice and immediate freedom for Dr. Grajales Yuca, immediate freedom for our distinguished emergency doctor who is (detained) simply for saving lives, a doctor who is dedicated to working humbly and with dignity in this pandemic.”

Presidents of more than 10 medical associations, sent a letter to President López Obrador saying that medical personnel are being unfairly blamed for deficiencies in the country’s health system.

The letter called the arrest of Grajales “violent, abusive and illegal,” rejecting the claim by the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office that the doctor was guilty of abuse of authority.

Another protest demanding the release of Grajales is being planned for Friday in front of Mexico City’s National Palace.

Source: La Jornada (sp), El Heraldo de México (sp), Infobae (sp), SDP Noticias (sp)

New police division to reinforce tourists’ security in Mazatlán

By

-

July 30, 2020

Police in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, have formed a new squad called “Capta Leopardo” to help keep tourists safe.

Municipal security director Juan Ramón Alfaro Gaxiola announced Wednesday that the division, made up of traffic and tourist police and water rescue officers, was created to patrol tourist areas and enforce environmental protection rules.

“Upon instructions from our mayor, Luis Guillermo Benítez Torres, today the special group of the Capta Leopardo has been formed; agents are bilingual and have ecological knowledge in order to provide security to the citizens of the port of Mazatlán, as well as to tourists that visit the port,” Alfaro stated.

Astrid Macias Fregoso, director of the Tourist Attention and Protection Center, stressed that Capta Leopardo’s duties will not only ensure the safety of citizens and tourists but reinforce environmental awareness to keep the beaches clean. The group will patrol coastal areas from Delfin Beach to the lighthouse and Isla de Piedra.

Source: Debate (sp), Milenio (sp)

New food warning labels begin to appear on store shelves

By

-

July 30, 2020